Part of a tree fell down last night. The tree was at the edge of my
yard and had been dead for a year or two, at least.

Do I have to age this before I can burn it? When I hit two pieces
together they go clop or knock and not clump. Sounds very dry.

Most of the bark is off the trunk which starts at 6 inches in diameter
where it broke off. Any bark that hadn't fallen off was barely stuck
on.

Don't know what kind of tree it was, but it was about 30 feet tall
after 27 years and its limbs were sort of scragly. Not a pretty shape
like a fir tree or a maple or oak.

You can try, but you won't be happy with the results. It will smoke and add
an inch of creosote to your chimney. Fine for a camp fire, if that's what
you had in mind. Most moisture loss is through the end grain, and your tree
didn't have any because it wasn't cut up.

Only fresh wood that burns well (that I know of) is black locust.


"mm" wrote in message
...
Part of a tree fell down last night. The tree was at the edge of my
yard and had been dead for a year or two, at least.

Do I have to age this before I can burn it? When I hit two pieces
together they go clop or knock and not clump. Sounds very dry.

Most of the bark is off the trunk which starts at 6 inches in diameter
where it broke off. Any bark that hadn't fallen off was barely stuck
on.

Don't know what kind of tree it was, but it was about 30 feet tall
after 27 years and its limbs were sort of scragly. Not a pretty shape
like a fir tree or a maple or oak.

Yes, you can definitely burn it. I've done it many times in my
fireplace with wood less than 3 months dead and hardly any smoke at
all.
But it helps to know - was it pine?







On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:41:11 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

You can try, but you won't be happy with the results. It will smoke and add
an inch of creosote to your chimney. Fine for a camp fire, if that's what
you had in mind. Most moisture loss is through the end grain, and your tree
didn't have any because it wasn't cut up.

Only fresh wood that burns well (that I know of) is black locust.


"mm" wrote in message
.. .
Part of a tree fell down last night. The tree was at the edge of my
yard and had been dead for a year or two, at least.

Do I have to age this before I can burn it? When I hit two pieces
together they go clop or knock and not clump. Sounds very dry.

Most of the bark is off the trunk which starts at 6 inches in diameter
where it broke off. Any bark that hadn't fallen off was barely stuck
on.

Don't know what kind of tree it was, but it was about 30 feet tall
after 27 years and its limbs were sort of scragly. Not a pretty shape
like a fir tree or a maple or oak.

"mm" wrote in message
...
Part of a tree fell down last night. The tree was at the edge of my
yard and had been dead for a year or two, at least.

Do I have to age this before I can burn it? When I hit two pieces
together they go clop or knock and not clump. Sounds very dry.

Most of the bark is off the trunk which starts at 6 inches in diameter
where it broke off. Any bark that hadn't fallen off was barely stuck
on.

Chances are, it came down because it was dead and dried out quite a bit.
Try some mixed with dry wood first. Wet wood uses a lot of its energy in
vaporizing the internal water so a lot of heat is lost up the chimney. It
will be easy enough to tell if it is dry enough. Keep a good air flow too
so you don't get as much creosote built up if it is wet.

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 03:41:11 GMT, "Toller" wrote:

You can try, but you won't be happy with the results. It will smoke and add
an inch of creosote to your chimney. Fine for a camp fire, if that's what
you had in mind. Most moisture loss is through the end grain, and your tree
didn't have any because it wasn't cut up.

Only fresh wood that burns well (that I know of) is black locust.


It depends on how dead it was before it fell. Firewood
dries just as well standing up as it does lying down,
but only if the tree was actually dead. You should be
able to tell when splitting it whether it's too wet
to burn well. Check for insect infestation before
bringing the stuff inside.

mm wrote:
Part of a tree fell down last night. The tree was at the edge of my
yard and had been dead for a year or two, at least.

Do I have to age this before I can burn it? When I hit two pieces
together they go clop or knock and not clump. Sounds very dry.

I've got 30-40 live oak trees which need frequent pruning and we burn
the freshly cut wood without problem. It will hiss and sputter while
the water is boiling off but soon begins to gas and burns just fine.
Pieces up to 8" or so we burn in the fireplace in winter, larger stuff
"out back".

I don't know if you mean to burn it as trash or in a fireplace though.
If in a fireplace and if it is a conifer, that's not good regardless
of how dry the wood is because the resins remain in your wood and
burning same will deposit creosote in the chimney.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 22:50:11 GMT, "dadiOH"
wrote:

mm wrote:
Part of a tree fell down last night. The tree was at the edge of my
yard and had been dead for a year or two, at least.

Do I have to age this before I can burn it? When I hit two pieces
together they go clop or knock and not clump. Sounds very dry.

I've got 30-40 live oak trees which need frequent pruning and we burn
the freshly cut wood without problem. It will hiss and sputter while
the water is boiling off but soon begins to gas and burns just fine.
Pieces up to 8" or so we burn in the fireplace in winter, larger stuff
"out back".

I don't know if you mean to burn it as trash or in a fireplace though.
If in a fireplace and if it is a conifer, that's not good regardless
of how dry the wood is because the resins remain in your wood and
burning same will deposit creosote in the chimney.

Thanks all. It's not a fir tree. And like I say, it seem very dry.
I don't want to have a fire when it is this cold out. I hear it just
sucks the air to be burned from the outside. But when it's up to 40
or more, which might be next week, I'll burn some of this.

I really like my little electric yard-sale chain saw. Made cutting
the thing up really easy.

It broke my fence, two rails and one or two pickets, but that's no
problem. At this part, the rails are only 5 or 6 feet long, too.